Drought, Commodity Price Fluctuations will Still be Challenges for South Sumatra: Minister

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has projected that drought and commodity price fluctuations will still be challenges faced by South Sumatra province and outlined mitigation measures to address them.

"The South Sumatra province will face a number of challenges, such as drought and fluctuations in commodity prices," he stated while chairing the leader's offsite meeting (LOM) in Palembang, South Sumatra, last week.

In a statement received here on Monday, Minister Hartarto informed that he has given a number of directives to South Sumatra to mitigate these challenges.

The mitigation efforts include strengthening food production by optimizing irrigation infrastructure, utilizing smallholder business credit (KUR), completing national strategic projects (PSN) to support connectivity, and using investment productively.

"I also hope that fiscal needs can be carried out in more innovative ways, such as by cooperating with banks, financial institutions, and government financing institutions such as PT SMI (Sarana Multi Infrastruktur)," he said.

During last week's meeting, he also shared facts about the current condition of the national and global economy with officials of the South Sumatra provincial government.

As the third largest economic contributor on Sumatra Island, South Sumatra's economic growth in the first quarter of 2024 was in the range of 5.6 percent year-on-year (yoy), with inflation controlled at 2.48 percent (yoy) as of June.

However, he urged South Sumatra to tackle its poverty level, which is still above the national figure.

The minister said that South Sumatra's economy can improve if it optimizes its huge potential in the mining, industry, and trade sectors.

"One of the steps that can be taken is mining and agriculture commodity downstreaming to increase added value sustainably," Hartarto expounded.

ANTARA

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